Nick Bounty seeking a haul for first commercial game on Kickstarter

Ironically for a franchise named Nick Bounty, the "comedic spoof on classic film noir detective movies" hasn't been bountiful at all so far, as indie developer Pinhead Games released the first two series installments absolutely free. Now the titular detective is back for an all-new case, but this time it's going to cost us.

Nick Bounty 3: The Dame with the Blue Chewed Shoe once again follows the titular down-on-his-luck protagonist in his "quest to be taken seriously as a real detective." This time around, armed with a police scanner that "lets him get a jump on the best cases," Nick finds himself caught up in a murder investigation "after discovering the naked body a young business woman buried in a playground sandbox." If he's to crack this case, he's going to need a sidekick, but "as the case unfolds, he becomes entangled in an absurd mystery that threatens to end his life... and his newly hired partner's too!"

As with its predecessors, the new game is presented largely in black and white to help evoke a sense of classic film noir. This is no hard-boiled mystery, however, but rather "a little bit Maltese Falcon, a little bit CSI, and a little bit Naked Gun." While exploring the 3D environments, gathering and analyzing evidence along the way, players can expect "jokes out the wazoo" while interacting with the various cast of fully-voiced characters. Accompanying you will be your choice of three different sidekicks: Emily Blackwater, a "tough as nails ex-cop who doesn't follow the rules and only works alone;" Zachary Forsythe, "one of those unofficial police psychics who claims to get into the mind of the murderer;" or Walter Walterman, a "cranky old-school tough guy who doesn't take any crap, but might take a few naps here and there."

In order to deliver the game on Windows and Mac by the end of 2019, Pinhead has taken to Kickstarter to raise $10,000 (US) by October 31st. If you'd like a taste of what the series is all about, the first two games (A Case of the Crabs and The Goat in the Grey Fedora) are still free to play, though bear in mind that these are much older Flash games created more than a decade ago, and do not reflect the quality of the new game designed from the ground up in Unity.